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The Chicago School Abandoned the Positive Freedom of Adam Smith and the Founding Fathers
Adam Smith’s theory of political economy did not begin with the isolated individual but rather the individual who operates to earn the respect of others. Wealth and freedom grew from these relationships and engaging with others to create a free society, or what 20th century philosopher Isaiah Berlin’s would call positive freedom. In the 1970s and ‘80s, the Chicago School abandoned this aspect of freedom in preference of the isolated individual, which in turn produced a weaker concept of freedom, morality, and society that has stifled the cultivation of all three in the United States, writes Maha Rafi Atal.
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